It is known to spread odors in auditoriums or viewing rooms through various techniques, including heating and spraying methods, with the purpose of enhancing cinematic, television, or other video entertainment.
It is also known to employ cartridges or other containers of odorous substances which, when selected by a pre-programmed method spread odors throughout the room.
It is also known to employ elaborate venting systems to evacuate odors from the room so that new odors can be introduced.
However, it is not known to precisely control the amount of odor causing chemicals introduced into the atmosphere of the room, particularly in a relatively confined area.
It is not difficult to introduce scents into a room at predetermined times, and later to remove them with air circulating means. The main difficulty is in managing the intensity of the aromas, as well as the timing and duration of the scent, in conjunction with the other entertainment sources, for individual viewers.
Previous technologies have offered numerous means of introducing chemical aromas into a room using methods that produce a wide range of intensity and duration. These means have typically employed imprecise techniques, such as opening and closing a hooded container as in McCarthy U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,030, spraying an approximate quantity of a chemical with an easily contaminated vaporizer as in Laube U.S. Pat. No. 2,905,049, or heating a liquid permeated material or compound as in Lee U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,070.
These methods usually contemplated disbursing relatively large quantities of scent into auditoriums or rooms, wherein numerous individuals would be affected by the introduction of aromatic chemicals. These previous techniques allowed for uncontrolled intensities of aroma, with the additional drawbacks that they were slow in delivering the scent, and scents continued to be generated even after they were no longer activated or intended.
The introduction of microcomputers as personal activity centers has changed the orientation of entertainment, employment, and avocations. It is therefore desirable to have a programmable aroma generating mechanism oriented toward its use by an individual sitting at a desk using a microcomputer. Such a circumstance requires a much more precise method of generating and evacuating chemical aromas.